COLUMBIA - Some legislators and business owners are questioning leadership at the state Department of Insurance, which has seen a staff shake-up and is preparing for the possibility of major changes in rates and the workers' compensation system.

Last February, Gov. Mark Sanford chose Eleanor Kitzman to run the department. Since then, two of the agency's most experienced regulators have left.

"Those people that have been there for a while perform these roles with expertise and on a professional basis. They tend to be above the political trade winds and tell you how they see it from the experience and knowledge they've gained over the years," said Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston.

Last year, the South Carolina Second Injury Fund, which helps employers keep workers with previous injuries on the payroll, said insurers would have to pay $253 million in assessments in the wake of a 2003 law change.

That was nearly double the previous year.

Then in June, the National Council on Compensation Insurance asked the Insurance Department to raise the primary component in setting workers' compensation rates by nearly 33 percent.

Kitzman rejected the NCCI request on Sept. 2, but her decision was filed two days late. The agency "failed to preserve its jurisdiction," Chief Administrate Law Judge Marvin Kittrell said on Nov. 8. The issue is now in Kittrell's hands.

The missed deadline didn't delay how the rate case is handled, Kitzman said Friday in a written response to questions.

Also in November, Dean Kruger, the insurance department's chief expert on risks and rates, was forced out. Two weeks ago, Tim Baker, a deputy director who served as the agency's interim director before Kitzman was hired, left, too.

Bob Walker, a Republican House member and Landrum insurance agent, worked with Baker for more than 20 years on issues at the Statehouse and in his business.

When he learned Baker and Kruger were gone, Walker recalls Kitzman telling him "different individuals have different personalities." Walker said she told him she had laid out a direction and goals for the agency and "those individuals did not feel that they were compatible with those goals and directions and they submitted their resignation."

"I think we're in serious trouble in the agency right now," Walker said.

Kitzman said her agency "is more than any one or two employees. We have a great staff, and to the extent we need additional expertise, we will retain outside actuaries and consultants, as we have done in the past."

Rep. Bob Leach, R-Greer, has been pushing for workers' compensation changes for years. The staff departures against the backdrop of possibly giving the agency more responsibility are a concern, he said. It may be time to "check to see if the way she wants to go is the correct way," Leach said.

Sanford supports Kitzman, said his spokesman, Joel Sawyer.

"We believe she's leading the department in the right direction," Sawyer said. "She's helping lead Sanford's efforts to change the workers' comp system and helped more property insurance companies take up business on the coast."

Kitzman, an 18-year insurance veteran, founded Driver's Choice Insurance Services in 1999 and sold it in 2002.

Frank Knapp, chief executive of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce, has been critical of Kitzman's work on workers' comp, saying it cuts too much in favor of insurers. "We don't have anyone who can act as a check to the political pressures to favor the insurance industry," Knapp said.

John Ruoff, research director for South Carolina Fair Share, a consumer advocacy group, said that has been a problem for years as the agency has spent more time making the state more attractive for insurers and less on regulation and consumer interests.

"You've got to make a decision which game you're going to play," Ruoff said.

Kitzman said the agency "takes its regulatory responsibilities very seriously and fulfills both its statutory obligations to see that the insurance laws of the state are faithfully executed and its mission to protect insurance consumers, the public interest and the insurance marketplace." Consumers, she said, benefit from a healthy competitive insurance environment that has been created here.